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Imagine living with Mike Iaconelli. It conjures up a different vision for each of us. But for an ambitious, college- educated, blonde named Becky, it’s been a reality for more than a year. She’s his girlfriend, traveling companion, fishing buddy, and certainly knows far more about Ike than most of us think we do.
The two met in Vegas. Ike was there to attend the fishing industry’s annual summer trade show. Becky was there with her girlfriends having a good time. Becky explains that Ike was neither screaming nor break dancing the first time she laid eyes on him. “When I first met Mike, he was so shy, and believe it or not, that’s kind of his true nature. A lot of my friends remark that he’s very shy when you first meet him,” she said. “He told me he was a professional fisherman, and truthfully, my first thoughts were that fishing was all about luck, and so I wandered how anybody could make a profession out of that,” she reflects.
After a year of traveling with Ike from one
Bassmaster Elite Series tournament to
another, her perspectives have changed
drastically. A typical day for Becky now
begins at 4:00 am; she’s there to help Ike
and his ‘traveling road show roommates’
Ish Monroe and John Crews, get breakfast.
Then she often attends the morning boat
launch. After Ike and the other Elite Series
Anglers launch, Becky spends the mornings
working by phone and computer on her
self-owned and operated interior decorating
company. She grabs a necessary nap at
mid-day following the pre-sunrise wake-ups,
and then it’s back to watch Ike at
weigh-in.
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So
what’s Ike really like? “He’s a
good person, a nice person, he’s
genuine and sweet. But people don’t
see that because that’s not what’s
portrayed on television or in the
press,” says Becky. “I’ve
definitely experienced the highs and
lows of this sport with him. From
receiving a text message from him as
he arrived at the boat dock at Table
Rock Lake reading ‘I did it.’
moments before the rest of the world
knew he had won the Toyota Angler of
the Year Award, to the many evenings
of watching him beat himself up when
things didn’t go well.” |
And what does Ike say about Becky? “Having a relationship in this sport is brutal, finding time to start a relationship is tough, putting up with me is tough, but she’s done a great job of it for more than a year now, and she even caught 25 pounds on a shaky head worm when I took her fishing in California this Spring.”
In the end, Becky says it’s all about
passion with Iaconelli. “The biggest thing
about Mike is that he’s a passionate
person. Whether, he’s fishing, playing
with his daughters, or whatever, he does it
with passion. And what you see on the water,
whether he’s celebrating or frustrated, is
all a function of that same passion,” she
concludes.
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